Rent and service charges: Homeowners

Please visit our online portal where you can register to manage your account online. 

If you need help setting up your account, you can email inclusion@placesforpeople.co.uk or request a call back by calling us on 01772 666246.

The amount you pay will depend on your lease agreement, start date of your agreement and the type of home you have with us. If you do not know what type of tenancy you have your tenancy or lease agreement will tell you. The rent review applied to market rent, mortgage rescue and shared ownership properties will be determined by the relevant clause within your lease or tenancy agreement. This will say what increase can be applied.

If you live in a home where you receive a service to any part of your building or community, we will charge you for the costs to deliver the service. Service charges are affected by costs of employment, overheads, and inflation rates.

Service charges, outlined in your lease or transfer document, are payable annually. We are responsible for maintaining our buildings and looking after shared areas in and around our blocks and Communities. You will therefore contribute to the cost of this through the service charge payment.

Examples of services that may be funded through the service charge:

• Cleaning and landscaping
• Maintenance of communal areas, including painting, replacement of communal windows and roof repairs
• Lift maintenance
• Utilities – gas, electricity and water
• Health and safety of services, including inspection, fire safety, legionella testing, electrical checks
• Home Ownership Management Fee (see below)

In addition, some homeowners are also charged a service charge to cover:

• Building insurance
• A contribution towards a reserve fund

Your service charge covers the cost of maintaining our buildings and caring for the shared areas around your home. While we’ve worked hard to review all service charges this year and make savings wherever possible, rising costs - such as the price of repair materials - may have resulted in an increase to your charge.

This may be for an existing service not previously included in your service charge, or a new service requested by your local housing team to improve your communal services, for example landscape improvements.

Insurance premiums are rising across the market due to increasing claim costs. These costs are driven by higher prices for building materials, energy, labour, and insurers’ operational costs.

Even if you haven’t made a claim, premiums must increase to ensure insurers can meet their obligations.

Landlords can charge management charges if they are reasonable (Homeowner Management Charge on your letter). Examples of chargeable services include:

• Collecting rents and service charges
• Service charge accounting
• Staffing costs
• Managing routine enquiries
• Buying and managing direct services
• Monitoring service contracts
• Inspecting areas
• General property management.

Annual charges are based on current usage, factoring in inflation and the contract rates set by the utility companies. We have renewed our energy contracts for 2025 to ensure we keep charges as low as possible.

This charge covers at least one of the following: lightning protection, door servicing, electronic gate servicing, washer, or dryer ventilation servicing.

This charge helps cover the cost of wear and tear, replacement, or provision of communal carpets, furniture, grit boxes, washing machines, or washing lines.

Service charges may be included as part of your housing benefit eligible rent. If you receive housing benefit, the service charges will be assessed in line with housing benefit regulations and any eligible charges will be paid for by Housing Benefit.

We’ll provide a breakdown in your annual increase letter to show you what’s eligible. Services marked as “HBE” (Housing Benefit Eligible) can be paid, and those noted as “HBI” (Housing Benefit Ineligible) cannot. This is decided by Housing Benefit Regulations.

The Universal Credit Housing Costs element may include an amount towards service charges. These service charges must be a condition of your transfer or lease agreement.

If you have any questions about the eligibility of your service charges, you should contact the Universal Credit Service Centre on 0800 328 5644.

Universal Credit

If you claim Universal Credit, you will need to report this change using your online Universal Credit account or by using the Universal Credit helpline 0800 328 5644, quoting your new rent and service charge amounts.

Reporting the change needs to be done as soon as possible after the new charge starts.

Housing Benefit

Please contact your Local Authority. Some local Housing Benefit departments may accept an email or posted copy from you, please check with them first.

Direct Debit

We will amend your payment automatically and send you a separate letter confirming your Direct Debit instalment amounts.

If you would like to start making payments by Direct Debit, you can download a Direct Debit mandate or call us on 01772 666444, and we can set this up for you over the telephone.

Standing Order

We cannot change your standing order for you. You need to contact your bank directly.

We want to support Customers who may need help if they are experiencing financial difficulty. If you would like to talk to us about the support available, please contact our Customer Contact Centre on 01772 666246 as soon as possible. You can also find help and resources on our Cost of Living support page.

If you do not currently receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, you should check whether you are now entitled to it following the change to your charges. You can do so by visiting www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators or by calling the Universal Credit Service Centre on 0800 328 5644.

These are the questions asked most often by our Customers. If these do not answer your question, please:

• Send us an email to rent.changes@placesforpeople.co.uk
• Call our Customer Service team on 01772 666246. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm (excluding Bank Holidays).